Memorandum For Record: Fill & Download for Free

I remember back in the late ’90s I was a recruiter up in Syracuse, NY. One day I was having a conversation with another recruiter and I said something derogatory about REMFs (Rear Echelon MFers). The other recruiter (who was in a non-combat MOS) got a shocked look on his face and told me not to say that. I asked what he was talking about, and he went to his desk and pulled out a copy of a very official looking MFR (Memorandum For Record). The MFR explained that REMF used bad language, and this was the new sensitive army of the ’90s (remember when they talked about giving trainees “stress cards”?). Therefore, REMF was no longer an authorized acronym for official correspondence or conversations. The new “official” acronym to replace it was PUNTS (Personnel of Utterly No Tactical Significance).I must have had a serious look on my face up the point where I read the new term, because the other guy just started laughing at me. So remember, if you hear anyone use the term REMF, make sure you tell them the updated acronym.

It’s all spelled out in the Memorandum for Record from Fort Hood.https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiShd6DpojQAhWBNiYKHQVtA88QFggoMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnebula.wsimg.com%2F0cda777ad689ffbcad4f87e00a1397b0%3FAccessKeyId%3D4EAB8FAF669649D8BA94%26disposition%3D0%26alloworigin%3D1&usg=AFQjCNH9yN_9OihpWmDaAFIN7LskhHgJIQ&sig2=ZKldfWP11EA9QSkgnxOO0w&bvm=bv.137132246,d.eWE .

What we know for certain is that the F.B.I. conducted a coordinated smear campaign in an attempt to discredit Dr. King and to put an end to his civil rights advocacy. J. Edgar Hoover authorized extensive gathering of personal dirt against Dr. King which was eventually used in an attempt to blackmail him into committing suicide and to defame his name and character even after his death.According to the ACLU’s extensive study:The Federal Bureau of Investigation began its smear campaign against Dr. King in the late 1950s under a secretive program entitled "Racial Matters." Over the next decade, the FBI engaged in concerted and illegal harassment and surveillance of Dr. King and other luminaries in the growing civil rights movement. The crusade to discredit Dr. King continued even after his death. Throughout this campaign, no credible evidence of wrongdoing existed to justify the FBI's activities.[1]As for why this information was gathered and how it was used:An FBI memorandum, for example, noted “[w]e are continuing to follow closely King’s activities and giving consideration to every possibility for future similar coverage that will add to our record on King so that in the end he might be discredited and thus be removed from his position of great stature in the Negro community.”In November 1964, the FBI mailed a composite tape from the coverage of hotel rooms in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles to Dr. King. Included with the tape was a letter stating the tape would be released in 34 days and threatening “there is only one thing you can do to prevent this from happening.” Those who read the letter interpreted it as inviting Dr. King to commit suicide.[2]So to give my own personal view, it may indeed be true that the most important American civil rights advocate of the 20th century was unfaithful to his wife. Whether he was or he wasn’t, I am certain that he did other things that were morally wrong, just as I have. I am not a fan of the hero myth that we tend to adopt for admirable leaders.Regardless, I can clearly recognize the campaign to defame his character as the enduring weapon of white supremacy that it was and is. It is the same one that led the New York Times, which is supposed to be an incredibly biased Liberal paper, to lead an article about a young man who had been wrongfully murdered by an agent of the state with the observation that “Michael Brown… was no angel.”[3]If others want to discount the truth that Dr. King spoke because of a racist smear campaign by a government that felt threatened by him, all I can do is observe that such was the exact purpose of said campaign, and that it seems to have succeeded.As for myself, I believe that I have seen sufficient evidence of the content of his character to make my own judgement.Footnotes[1] ACLU Releases Report on FBI Crusade Against Martin Luther King Jr.; Urges Ashcroft Not to Relax Spying Guidelines Drafted After Shameful Campaign[2] The Dangers of Domestic Spying by Federal Law Enforcement: A Case Study of FBI Surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King[3] Michael Brown Spent Last Weeks Grappling With Problems and Promise